632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tricts the average density of settlement, exclusive of the popula- 

 tion of the cities and towns, varied in 1880 all the way from twenty- 

 six to the square mile in Minnesota to nearly or quite sixty in 

 New Jersey. The average density in the great Mississippi region 

 of decrease was in 1880, 31 to the square mile, and in 1890, 29 ; in 

 the Virginia group it was in 1880, 39, and in 1890, 37 ; in the 

 Michigan group it was in 1880, 42, and in 1890, 39 ; and in the 

 eastern group it was in 1880, 45, and in 1890, 42. 



While probably every census has revealed more or less marked 

 decreases in particular neighborhoods, at no previous census did 

 so large a portion of the country show a loss of its rural popula- 

 tion. Still, while the area over which the decrease extends is com- 

 paratively large, the tendency to a loss of rural population is by 

 no means a new one. There are counties as far west as Illinois, 

 which have been losing rural population for the last twenty years. 

 As already stated, there are Massachusetts towns which have 

 less population than they had at the close of the last great French 

 War. There are Virginia counties which have fewer inhabitants 

 than they had one hundred years ago. It is a curious circum- 

 stance that among these counties is Caroline, best known to per- 

 sons who are not Virginians by its association with the name of 

 the mover of the Resolutions of 1798. Colonel Taylor, who la- 

 bored no less earnestly for the improvement of agriculture than 

 for the maintenance of the strictest construction of the Constitu- 

 tion, seems by the result to have had even less success in the 

 former than in the latter object of his desire. In the adjoining 

 State of Maryland, the county of Charles, lying on the Potomac, a 

 few miles below Mount Vernon, has to-day twenty-five per cent 

 fewer inhabitants than it had when the proprietor of Mount 

 Vernon was inaugurated first President of the United States. 



While the country regions have been losing population or 

 gaining it but slowly, the cities, towns, and villages have, as a 

 rule, grown rapidly, except in Nevada. While individual cities 

 have differed widely in their respective rates of increase, if the 

 cities of the country be classified according to size, it will be 

 found that large cities and small towns are alike growing rapid- 

 ly, and that the difference in the rate of their growth is not very 

 great. To this statement New England is an apparent though 

 not a real exception. In the New England States the towns with 

 between 1,000 and 2,000 inhabitants each in 1890, have actually 

 lost population during the decade, while those with between 2,000 

 and 4,000 inhabitants have gained but little, and those with be- 

 tween 4,000 and 8,000 very much less than have places of a like 

 grade in other portions of the country. The explanation, of course, 

 is that, as before stated, these towns correspond to the townships 

 and other local subdivisions in other States, and, as such, nearly all 



